Subtle Hints: Red Mage

[Duelle]

@OP: Those spells were part of a crapton of other abilities that existed in the game before the class revampt that took place after Yoshida was given control over the game.

I wouldn't take those as hints to RDM but rather hints on combat systems and the original armoury system. If you want to see what the original armoury could have achieved, you need not look further than The Secret World, a game that uses the exact same system but with the element of decks. Decks are pretty much class names your character gets based on abilities they set in their action bars (like if you want to be labeled a witch hunter you needed specific abilities set and you'd earn the label as well as a small bonus to the abilities involved).

I have a feeling Tanaka's FFXIV was aiming at something similar. Set certain abilities/spells in your action bar and you'd be a Black Mage, or a White Mage and so on. It would make sense given the abilities in-game as well as the sheer number of jobs in the FF IP, and would also explain why the base classes were not named after the jobs to begin with.

[Arcturius]

Don't hate me for this, but if red mage is gonna be what it was in FFXI then leave it out. That is not a Red Mage. that is some awkward buff/debuff role. FF1 first identified the Red Mage as a Duelist that can use White and Black magic, but does not excel at using any of them, meaning it was by no means the best at any trait. The fact that it could use everything was a force to be reckoned with though. It has been that way in every FF and FFXI was the first, and only, FF game to take the whole whole debuff/buff approach. That type of role would not fit in this MMO style at all. What they should honestly do is go back to what they where. They could have chance of proc abilities where they have a chance to get a free heal to throw on a team member or after doing a combo they get a instant spell cast off GCD or on GCD whatever works. Just make them the melee fighters they are and make magic in their main rotation. I just miss ACTUAL Red Mages.

[Conradus]

2 of everything besides archer?

Two nuking mages: BLM & SMN
Two healing mages: WHM & SCH
Two melee DPS: MNK & DRG
Two tanks: PLD & WAR
But only one ranged physical DPS.

[NeoZehel]

2 of everything besides archer?

2 magic dps, 2 melee tanks, 2 melee dps, 2 healers, 1 archer.

[Eidolith]

I loved the red mages in Tactics Advance, that double cast summoning was sweet.

[rtpsoulx]

if they added RDM, they couldnt give them enareo en blizzard enfire ect.. it would be useless... theres no elemental weaknesses. Your just going to enfire your weapon for show? a little bit extra dmg when swinging? it would be useless the way ARR is setup.

[AryaUnderfoot]

The red mage was originaly not a buff/debuff class. The earlier incarnations of it were a cool versatile class that would become more an more useless as the game progresses. It's staple wasn't having good debuff skill, or having specific spells like dia or refresh, but the fact of having access to some white and some black magic as well as being proficient with a sword. The only skill red mage really always had is multicast (doublecast, x-spell etc). Everything else is what RDM was in XI - not saying that it was bad there (I played one and love all of it), but that it should be, imo, done differently here.

Also, you had en- spells used by enemies in 1.0 as well.

To be honest, I'm not sure how the can even implement it with the current system. What would it's role be? Tank? Well no. But what then? Healer? Damage dealer? It should be a balance of the two utilising both magic and melee with healing abilities.

[kollwitz]

they might aswell add Musketeer as a starting class and let Redmage be the Job for it...
i was never too fond of the whole melee/fencing thing with RM anyway, so i kinda like the idea.

[samathir]

Everybody talks about Red Mage, samurai, ninja and even blue mage, but everybody is forgeting one job that was really fun to play, Thief.

[TaruPower]

Come on SE, give us RDM. It baffles me that it isn't already in the game, given that it's a staple Final Fantasy job.